Paul and Lucy Spadoni periodically live in Tuscany to explore Paul’s Italian roots, practice their Italian and enjoy “la dolce vita.”
All work is copyrighted and may not be reprinted without written permission from the author, who can be contacted at www.paulspadoni.com

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Despite widespread reports, Italian government is NOT limiting access to the popular Cinque Terre

If you have travel plans to visit the
spectacularly picturesque Cinque Terre in Italy’s Liguria region,
you may have read that you need to get permission from the Parco
Nazionale delle Cinque Terre, starting this summer, to enter the
area. That’s according to an article in the The Guardian, a
British daily newspaper, which translated and repeated news printed
in La Repubblica and several other Italian news sources.
However, the park president, responding to outcries and criticisms
from other government officials and tourism agencies, has since
backtracked and stated that no limits will be put into place.

Vittorio Alessandro, president of the
Cinque Terre national park, initially stated that some restrictions would be instituted this summer, but now he says only that the park is studying the problem and seeking solutions. This is not surprising, since it would seem to be a near-impossibility that the park could exclude visitors who have already booked tours and hotel rooms. While the area is part of a national park, it also contains five working cities, and one can hardly deny people access to the businesses and homes there. While many other news sites picked up and repeated the story fromThe Guardian, most Italian news sources are telling people not to be concerned.

Manarola

However, it
can’t be denied that tourists are over-running this once unspoiled
jewel, creating tangles of foot traffic that snarl the small roads
and trails. It is obvious that measures are needed to preserve the
environment and the ambiance. People live there year-around and they
have for centuries. They have a right to move around freely on their
own streets. If tourists chase the residents away, the area will
become a Disneyland or Epcot Center, a facade where the only real
residents are employees of the tourism industry.

“Our aim
is to reduce attendance,” Alessandro said in the controversial interview printed in La Repubblica. “Normally the tendency is
to try to increase tourism, to fill the beds and rooms. The flow of
crowds must be managed in a more sustainable way. People will
criticize, of course, but the park must also have a pedagogical (educational) mission.”

He said
that 2.5 million people visit the Cinque Terre each year, and that is
a million more than this fragile area can sustain.

According
to Alessandro, the since-withdrawn proposal had two parts: One was to limit the number of
tourists allowed on the Via dell’Amore at one time, and the other
was to allocate separate trains for tourists and residents. Tourists
would have to buy a special train ticket that would include admission
to the Cinque Terre area.

Via dell'Amore

Part one,
Alessandro had said, was already in place: “We installed
pedometers on the trails to the Via dell’Amore . . . in order to
calculate with the geologists, the maximum load. It’s also a safety
issue. By the summer, we’ll have all the data, and the number of
people who can access each trail per day will be established,
according to the weather and course conditions. If the trail is sold
out, the visitors will postpone the visit to the next available
date.”

As expected, the plan had many critics, and they quickly exerted pressure to see
the restrictions nullified or at the very least postponed and modified.

“Limiting
the number of people at Cinque Terre is inappropriate and
unworkable,” said Rita Mazzi, provincial director of a
confederation of tourism businesses. “The Cinque Terre are and will
remain the driving asset in the future of tourism development for the
entire La Spezia province. They must be protected and defended. We
must aim for quality tourism that is sustainable with the
environment. But to speak of a ‘closed number’ is harmful.”

It does
seem possible that limited traffic on the trail could be attainable,
because it would just restrict access in a particular area, and
residents of the Cinque Terre could be given passes allowing them to
bypass any barriers. Part two, however, is filled with complications
and would require the cooperation and participation of numerous
governmental agencies, including the national train company, the
regional government and that of the various cities in the area. This
cooperation and coordination will be much more difficult to attain.

The
President of the Liguria Region, Giovanni Toti, has stated on behalf
of the regional government that he is totally against limited access
to the Cinque Terre: “Limiting access in a country that must count
on tourism is a contradiction and a way to abdicate responsibility.
We will work instead to increase the quality of tourism services.”

Toti
mentioned the need for enhanced transportation systems and the
development of other means of reducing congestion, problems which
previous government administrations have failed to address.

Liguria’s
regional assessor of tourism, Gianni Berrino, also spoke against the
plans put forth by Alessandro: “The position of the regional
government is clear, and we want to confirm this strongly in order to
prevent inaccuracies like this which spread internationally at
lightning speed these days. This non-news will inevitably undermine
the upcoming tourist season, not only in Eastern Liguria but with
domino effect on the entire region.”

A frequent
forum participant on Rick Steves’ website, Roberto, from Fremont, California, weighed in with
his insight as well: “Unfortunately once in a while you hear public
officials, such as the head of the CT National Park, who has no
jurisdiction on this matter, making statements just because they like
to hear themselves talk.”

My
own advice is that if you want to visit the Cinque Terre, do it in
the early spring or late fall, when the weather is still mild and the
number of tourists is low. Summers are hot and crowded here, so that
advice pretty much goes for any place in Italy you want to see, but
it is especially true for the more popular attractions. However, if
you must come in the summer, don’t worry. It is in the best interests of the
Italian government and tourism industry to
accommodate you.2017 update: The park service has responded to a written inquiry about the coming season:‟No,
non ci sarà nessuno limite turistico.” No limits this year.

2 comments:

No easy answers with overcrowding due to popularity. Much like hiking the Enchanments here where you need to win a hiking permit lottery it is a pain but you understand the intent. As a traveler that enjoys locals as much as the scenic uniqueness of a place I can appreciate the concern over the loss of real people living out normal lives in such places. Patty and I enjoy our friends in Hawaii as much as the beach and sunsets.

Roberto is a notorious moron, in 2017 the Park will enforce limits on the number of people accessing the trails as it is entirely within their powers. A cascade effect will follow.Nobody apart the national government can tell a national park director what he can or can't do.

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First off, before you hassle me about our title, Lucy thought of it. Yes, I know some people may think broad is derogatory, but the etymology is uncertain and she doesn’t find it offensive, and it made me laugh. We have been married since 1974 and are empty-nesters now, which allows me to bring my submerged Italophilia into the open. We first came to live in Italy from February-April in 2011 and have returned during the same months every year. From 2011-2015, we lived in San Salvatore, at the foot of the hilltop city Montecarlo, where my paternal grandparents were born, raised and, in 1908, married. In late 2015, we bought a home in Montecarlo. We come for a variety of purposes: We want to re-establish contact with distant cousins in both Nonno’s and Nonna’s families, we want to learn the language and see what it is like to live as Italians in modern Italy, we like to travel and experience different cultures. Even if we aren’t successful at achieving these purposes, we love Italy and enjoy every moment here, so there is no chance we will be disappointed. I am grateful to God for giving me a wife who is beautiful, clever, adaptable and willing to jump into my dreams wholeheartedly.